Saturday, May 29, 2010

Gary Coleman

So sorry to hear about Gary Coleman’s passing. What a sad and all-too-brief life he led.

When I heard the news of his death I have to admit that one of my thoughts was what are they going to do now on AVENUE Q? AVENUE Q is the Tony winning Broadway musical that is essentially the R-rated version of SESAME STREET. One of the characters in the musical is supposed to be Gary Coleman. And he’s the punchline to a big song in the first act. The song is “It Sucks to be Me” and features all of the Muppet-like puppets trying to top each other with how bad their life is. This is how it ends:

PRINCETON (one of the Muppets)Well, I started at Avenue A,but so far everything is outof my price range. But thisneighborhood looks a lot cheaper!Oh, and look - a "For Rent" sign!

Gary also takes the lead in the song “Schadenfreude!” (the German word for "happiness at the misfortune of others!")

Jeff Marx, who conceived AVENUE Q said lines were being changed that were now not appropriate, and after last night's performance a tribute to Gary was held.

Reports are that the real Gary Coleman was not very pleased with how he was portrayed in the show. But he came off as a real good sport. And it just reinforced what we always knew -- Gary Coleman was a wonderful guy. He handled success and fame with humility and gratitude and suffered enormous adversity with grace and humor. He was a great role model, a gifted comic actor, and at the end of the day -- a very big man.

I had one dealing with Gary and it was quite humorous. Some years back I got in an elevator in Century City in the ABC complex across from the Century Plaza Hotel. As the doors closed, in ran Gary Coleman. He pushed the button and the elevator started to move ... then abruptly stop. We were between floors and stalled. Just Gary and me. And poor Gary started to get so angry. Punching the buttons and yelling into the phone. I calmed him down by saying "Look at it this way. At least it's quiet in here." He laughed, a few minutes later we were on our way and he thanked me. Well, thank you Gary. Be at peace.

Best thing I guess would be to write out the Coleman parts and find another former child/teen-age major star who's career has done a header into the dumpster. Scott Baio or Leif Garrett come to mind, though if the show wants to go the distaff route, there's always Lindsey Lohan (though admittedly if they picked either of the last two, "Avenue Q" could end up having to re-write the part again very quickly).

I've been wondering the same thing. I'd never seen "Avenue Q," but I have tickets to the national touring company here in Dallas next Friday and had just ordered the CD from Amazon. The Dallas Morning News reports that they made a pre-show announcement last night about Gary and dedicated the show to him. I guess I'll find out by next Friday how they've rewritten it.

"-beeI don't know why - but my top memory of Gary Coleman was of him doing some hilarious guest spots playing himself on Tom Arnold's short-lived but quite funny "The Jackie Thomas Show"."

I remember a scene in which he's playing poker with Arnold; he's out of chips but wants to stay in the game so he asks if he can bet his good kidney. I thought that was brilliant. I wish it was posted on You Tube.

yeah, me too... My first thought was, "how sad." My second thought was "what will happen to Ave Q?????" I wanted soooo much to say something about it on Facebook, but was afraid I'd appear waaaay to jaded.. didn't want to tip my hand.RIP Gary

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Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created three series. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and Dodger Talk. He hosts the podcast HOLLYWOOD & LEVINE

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